Word of the Week: West Korea

Editor’s Note: The Word of the Week comes from China Digital Space’s Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China’s online “resistance discourse,” used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.

If you are interested in participating in this project by submitting and/or translating terms, please contact the CDT editors at CDT [at] chinadigitaltimes [dot] net.

"The people of China and North Korea have great power."

西朝鲜 (Xī Cháoxiǎn): West Korea

West Korea is a pejorative term for China. In Chinese the term is literally “the North Korea of the West;” thus the comparison is with North and not South Korea. Netizens complain about the similarities between North Korea and China: repressive rulers, lack of democracy, corruption, fear of the West, etc. While in all these aspects China is superior to North Korea, there is one in which China lags behind. As one netizen has pointed out, “In soccer, North Korea has shown the way for West Korea” (北朝鲜足球为西朝鲜足球指明了方向).